Has the ADA jumped the shark?
Apparently my Dwarf Paladin on Anvilmar server can get a job at Starbucks now to augment his l33t healing skillz:
The Starbucks Coffee Company has paid $75,000 to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to settle a lawsuit for unlawfully denying a reasonable accommodation to a woman with dwarfism, according to a press release.
The lawsuit was filed by the commission on behalf of Elsa Sallard, who claimed she was fired from her job as a barista because she is a dwarf.
According to a press release from the commission, Sallard told employers during a training that she could use a stool or stepladder to do her job.
Look, I am all for reasonable accomodation and things of that nature, as I think everyone is. But, if a Barrista works on a machine that is 4 feet in the air, and that is also where the counter is, how can you have a sub-4 foot invididual working it. Hypothetically, if Starbucks put in a stool that this lady could stand on, how many think that would pass OSHA muster? Or are they supposed to build a ramp that takes up half the work area? At what point does a federal requirement to treat everyone equal turn into an unconscionable and unprofittable requirement for someone running a small business?
I don’t know the answer, but I know THIS isn’t right:
A deaf man has accused a nudist park in upstate New York of violating federal law by refusing to provide him with a sign-language interpreter at an annual festival.
Tom Willard, 53, of Rochester, filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department claiming Empire Haven Nudist Park violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by refusing his requests for an interpreter.
“I am fed up with being turned away every time I try to do something, by idiots who somehow feel the ADA does not apply to them,” Willard wrote in the complaint.
Really dude? You go to the nudist colony for the conversations? Yeah, and I read Penthouse for the incisive articles, I go to the titty bar to learn about young women taking Childhood Education classes at the local community college, and I go to Borders for their excellent restrooms.
Willard said he wanted to raise awareness of groups that ignore the ADA. He said he was also filing a complaint against a local comedy club that refused to provide an interpreter.
“I hate that I have to go through these experiences and subject myself to ridicule and derision, but the alternative is to stay home and never try to do anything in the world,” Willard said.
I just don’t see how private enterprised being driven into the ground financially somehow helps someone with a disability. I think this guy is on a money fishing expedition. I just can’t accept that a nudist colony should be required to pay this guys interpreter. Should a guy here on a visa from Malawi get his own interpreter? If not, you are a racist apparently.
Category: Politics
“I go to the titty bar to learn about young women taking Childhood Education classes at the local community college”
-Note to self, get the “I support single mothers” t-shirt to annoy the Missus!
-On second thought, don’t want to see if she remembers that knee to the nuts move from H2H training….
Speaking of which that reminds I do have a character over on Anvilmar. A lowly level 23 Worgen Warlock. I haven’t been playing in awhile cause work has been crazy stupid busy lately, thanks Obamacare, but I hope to get back to it soon.
“if Starbucks put in a stool that this lady could stand on, how many think that would pass OSHA muster?” Well, it would have to be equipped with a railing, and probably a safety harness, to prevent the vertically-challenged barista from going airborne.
And, every patron of a comedy club is entitled to an interpreter? If I go to a mosque for the “ambience”, am I entitled to an interpreter? I do have a bad back.
This reminds me of a friend that wants Telemundo to have interpreters, he doesn’t care that he would still watch it on mute he just wants to be able to understand it.
I do despise the ADA. It’s designed not to HELP the disabled, but to keep them dependent upon government assistance, to designate another group that the government can become an enabler of. It’s as if the federal Government, especially the leftists who are running it, is infected with Munchausen-by-Proxy syndrome. They make people sick so that they can care for them.
Businesses get around the ADA by increasing the physical requirements for jobs, with a wink & nod from the Feds. Both sides win. The businesses get to hire those they want, and who are less likely to get injured and sue, and the feds get to keep more folks on the disability bandwagon and dependent on Federal assistance to survive.
I’ll stop my rant now, and go get some more coffee. 🙂
It is not up to you to find the answer or instigate fear for business to not to hired people with disabilities, the real question you should be asking. Is there is anybody who has hire a person with physical short limitation what were the result of hiring? Finding information like this really helps business communitity to find answer that may keep and retain people with disabilities.
Beside the law is clear, business must tried to find reasonable accommodation before proceeding to fire.
A suggestion to you and your readers maybe this will put you to open up view and increase your understanding on people with disabilities and increase your readership
Before your write something about people with disabilities ask people that has the same disability that your about to write on and then ask five non-disable person. After you interview them, you can post them on your.
If you’re going to write about us then do it with us.
Daniel Garcia
Systems Change Advocate
Community Rehabilitation Services
Member of The Transit Coalition
Member of the Southern Califiornia Transit Advocate
Member of Access Services Quality Services sub-committee
Member of Metro Accessibility Advisory Committtee
Member of the LA County’s Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee (VAAC)
“Empowering persons with disabilities to become more independent”
4716 Cesar E. Chavez Avenue
Los Angeles, Ca 90022
Phone: 323-266-0453
Fax: 323-266-7992
TTY: 323-266-1850
And, every patron of a comedy club is entitled to an interpreter?
Kinda like when Jeff Dunham and Peanut talk about a show they were doing that had a signer for the deaf…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_5vJVnQb7w&feature=related
Start at the 1:40 mark.
And yes, I’ve even been to CONCERTS that had deaf signers. I couldn’t make it up if I tried.
I think I am going to sue Sam’s Club for not providing me with a five foot buffer between myself and other shoppers. This is a major trigger of my PTSD and I don’t want to hurt anyone.
People like the Dwarf and the Deaf guy cause more discrimination than they solve. Rather than be given a chance to do a job just like everyone else someone who needs a bit of accommodation just won’t be hired out of fear of a lawsuit. Maybe the solution wasn’t the best solution available, but it was an option. I don’t think that it merited a 75,000 lawsuit. When I was at the casino we had a dealer who was 4’8″ if that and they actually built her a box with wheels on it that she would take from table to table to stand on while she dealt. It was a reasonable accommodation.
What the deaf guy is asking for is not reasonable he is being ridiculous.
Taking this argument to other extreme members of the NBA will now be glad to know they qualify for protection under the ADA acts. I mean c’mon. They are above average height therefore always prone to hitting their heads on doorways, most furniture does not take into account their height meaning it forces them to sit in awkward positions, automobiles don’t have the necessary leg room and a whole host of other issues that I can relate to since I have long legs. What is a business to do if they have both a little person and a tall person working together? Force one guy to work on his knees while issuing stilts to the other?
Dear Daniel,
Not to be rude, but from reading your post I assume that English is not your primary language? If, in fact, you are who you say you are, you really ought to be spending a little bit more time cleaning up your spelling and grammar before embarrassing yourself and your employer on a public forum.
As to your assertions, you might also take the time to peruse the readership, posters and commenters here. There’s a LOT of folks who post here who are disabled veterans and know quite a bit about the challenges faced by us in the workplace. Heck, we can tell you a lot about the challenges in just getting through one day to the next.
Soldier & sailor humor isn’t easily understood by those who haven’t served, and it’s a damned disgrace that most folks like you, Daniel, don’t bother to do 5 minute’s worth of research before you come on here and chastise us with your civilian-centered holier-than-though crapweasel attitude.
I’m a disabled veteran and I know full well the challenges faced by folks. I also know full well how folks like you help others to game the system and empower the government to KEEP people dependent upon government patronage by making it harder for businesses to actually HIRE someone.
So screw off, Daniel. It’s not the least surprising you’d be working at an address on Caesar Chavez avenue. That man was a 2-bit coward, a disgrace to our Navy and to all who actually care about this great nation.
Not to mention that he has mis-stated my position entirely. No one “hired” the deaf guy to go to the nudist colony.
As for the diminutive Barrista, what possible accommodation can their be that doesn’t endanger other employees or customers? Not being flippant, but rather curious. If the tables are universally that high, and they are in every Starbucks I have been in, then what possible configuration wouldn’t be a problem for this young lady? I’m willing to concede that Starbucks should have handled differently, like setting her up in a job that didn’t require working at the tall machines, but 75k? Besides which, I don’t have any further specifics on this, perhaps you would care to enlighten us on how Starbucks *didn’t* try to accommodate her?
Daniel: ENGLISH !!!
Damn, that was painful to read.
ADA hasn’t jumped the shark. It speaks to a thing called ‘reasonable accomodations.’
And then there are lawyers, with brochures for Bentleys.
Could Starbucks have reasonably accomodated a Little Person? Yep. Would it have involved changing how that particular store flowed behind the bar? Yep, and safely, too. Simple failure of leadership by the Starbucks manager/franchisee.
Now, if only there was a way to fix Daniel’s English.
I would hazard a guess that Starbucks was in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” type situation. If they hadn’t hired the woman in the first place, she in all likelihood would have gone after them for discrimination right off the bat. Never been to a Starbucks, but I would think that a certain amount of mobility is required behind the counter in order to serve the customers in a timely and efficient manner. Having a stool was not really a feasible option, with the added liability issue of the woman having to get on and off the stool on a regular basis to do her job.
#11 TSO
their should be there
Daniel, as you don’t seem to be a native born English speaker, as Tim said, just what does a “Systems Change Advocate” do, and who pays you? And, where is the job description posted? Just curious.
And I,too,have been to concerts that have signers, Sparky.
I have a feeling that a LOT of what Daniel does comes under the heading of “community organizer” and we all know how well THAT has turned out for these United States.
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Daniel is an honors graduate of the Al Sharpton School of Journalism and Argumentation. (Mulch.)